What is the point of the export feature?

Thanks for the response.

CSV is simply not capable of carrying all the necessary information.

CSV can encode anything. What makes sense to include depends on the intended use of the file. My intention is to open it in a spreadsheet program or text editor and read it. So, large or binary data would get in my way. But, vault name, created date, and modified date would not and they would add a lot of value.

I think vault name is a critical omission since the export is forced to include all vaults one has access to. It's exactly that omission that made my CSV export useless when I needed it. That discovery is what made me wonder what the point of the CSV export is.

An imported 1PUX imports date into new vaults. Your existing data is untouched.

That's good news. I'd like a bit more clarity since it's certainly not something I want to experiment with. Say I have 10 vaults. I think you're saying that after the import of the 1PUX I'll have 20 vaults. Will I be able to distinguish the original vaults from the imported vaults?

Any chance you have a reference where the 1PUX import is documented?

Thanks again for your response. Hey! It's great you made that converter suite; very much appreciated.

I won't disagree that additional data could be added to the CSV. It will never be comprehensive.

But, I do think we disagree about what makes for a bare minimum CSV in order to support well a typical use case. The vault name is an attribute in the bare minimum set of attributes. It makes me think that the CSV export was not given much attention, but it would be unfair to assert that.

When you import a 1PUX, all vaults within that 1PUX are imported as new vaults, and prepend the name "Imported " in front of the vault names inside the 1PUX. So if you have vaults A, B and C, after an import, you'll have vaults "Imported A", "Imported B", and "Imported C". You can repeat the process, and you'll get additional vaults. The vault names are not relevant - there will be no data collisions, since a vault UUID is generated on import, and that's the important factor.

Thanks for that info.

So, if you import two different backup versions, you'll have two "Imported A" vaults. Even though they will have distinct UUID's, they will be indistinguishable in the UI. So after the first import and before the second, it would make sense to rename all the imported vaults in a way that associates them with the particular backup.

I guess, if the goal is to dig through backups, importing would be a very awkward approach.

There is some documentation for 1PUX here, but it is far from comprehensive.

I find the 1PUX mostly self-documenting; it's nicely done. The thing that's not documented is the 1PUX import, but your answers are a good substitute. Thanks for taking the time to provide them.

I think I might write a small program that uses a jq-like query and delivers the query's output for each 1PUX backup file in a folder. That will give me all the local history I need. I hadn't expected to need this to make the backups manageable during a crisis. I'd better do it ahead of time, before my hands are shaking in some panic of lost access.

@MrC ,

Thanks for the quick retraction. That makes the 1PUX export quite the loaded gun. Does the application warn you about that before the import actually takes place?

Again, I'm really sorry for my screw-up on this info.

No need to apologize since you checked and retracted so quickly.

I think my original question still stands. If we put aside the desire to move 1Password data to a different program, I really don't know what the exports are for. If they are intended to provide utility to a non-programmer, then it seems to me they are half-baked.

The CSV export has data from every vault, but doesn't bother telling you what vault an item is from. It's like getting a list of cities without being told what states or countries they belong to. I don't think anyone was really serious about making the CSV useful.

The 1PUX export is a hand grenade. There's no explanation of what to do with it. One is easily lead to believe it's OK to just import it. But there are no warnings given and questions left unanswered. What if permissions have changed and some of the import is disallowed? Does it partially complete? Can you roll back a partial import? Can you roll back a bunch of vaults to before an import after you realize what damage it did?

The 1PUX is an enormous beast, containing the contents of every vault that you have access to in your account. Importing it in the same account that it was exported from has an enormous, undesirable effect and seems to be irreversible. Also, there's no way for a user like myself to learn what it does since I don't have access to a test account.

I'm left scratching my head.